Is AP World History Hard? Is AP World History Worth Taking?

3 min read•november 18, 2020

Sander Owens

AP World History: Modern 🌍

577 resources

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WHAP can be a tricky class to master, but with the right resources, the course to success is clear! Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Introduction 👋

Hello! If you're here, you're probably wondering whether or not you should take AP World History. Don't worry! We're here to help. In this guide, we'll go over how hard WHAP is, what other AP classes might help you succeed, and whether WHAP is worth taking as a class. Plus, we have linked some helpful articles and replays that may help with your choice.

How Difficult is WHAP? 🧠

Good question... 🤔

The simple, but unhelpful answer, is that it depends. This is because history classes like WHAP have vastly different styles depending on your teacher. So, a good way to figure out if WHAP will be hard is to ask some people who have taken WHAP at your school. Be sure not to ask what kinds of work the class required.

Some teachers emphasize learning how to write the essays for the exam, which requires a lot of writing work, whereas others focus more purely on the historical content, which leans toward doing tons of reading and responses/comprehension questions 📝

In terms of studying for the exam, WHAP, and other AP history courses, can be pretty intensive in terms of workload, as both the content and the exam format can require substantial review and practice. The WHAP exam has four types of questions, including three different types of free-response questions. Be prepared to do a considerable amount of format learning!

Also, knowing history doesn't always translate to doing well on the exam. You must connect different historical events and recognize big historical patterns.

Other AP Classes That Might Help 🏫

However, if you have taken other history AP classes, WHAP becomes significantly easier. The exam format is exactly the same as AP United States History 🇺🇸 and AP European History 🇪🇺 With recent modifications to the curriculum, the focus of WHAP is after 1200.

AP Comparative Government 🗳️, another class that may help, can provide context for the countries you are comparing, or even AP Human Geography 🚜, to connect the history to present world events and the way people are in the world right now.

Is WHAP Worth Taking? ⚖️

Again, it depends (so straightforward, I know). There are a few things that would make WHAP worth taking for you:

Knowledge/Interest 🤯: If you are generally interested in history and you enjoy learning about history, WHAP is definitely a great course to take as it allows you to learn more about parts of world history that you may or may not be familiar with.

Credit🎓: WHAP can frequently satisfy a social studies/other general education credit at your college. Be sure to check which colleges accept which scores for credit.

Challenge 🧗: WHAP, and AP History classes in general, are relatively difficult classes with lots of moving parts for the exam and hundreds of years of history to remember. If you feel like taking a challenging and intellectually stimulating class, we would definitely recommend WHAP!